88.5 WFDD - Carolina Curioushttps://www.wfdd.org
88.5 WFDD presents Carolina Curious, a series where our reporters find answers to your questions. We want to know what you've always wondered about the place where you live. For example: "Why are there so many hot dog joints in Winston-Salem and so many burger places in Greensboro?" Or, "How did High Point get its name?"
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en88.5 WFDD presents Carolina Curious, a series where our reporters find answers to your questions. We want to know what you've always wondered about the place where you live. For example: "Why are there so many hot dog joints in Winston-Salem and so many burger places in Greensboro?" Or, "How did High Point get its name?"
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88.5 WFDD - Public Radio For The PiedmontnoChanging The Way We Wait At Winston-Salem's Bus Stops (The Sequel)https://www.wfdd.org/story/changing-way-we-wait-winston-salems-bus-stops-sequel
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A large bus shelter covers the stop in front of the WSTA office building on Trade Street in Winston-Salem. DAVID FORD/WFDD </div>
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<p>On today’s <a href="/show/carolina-curious" target="_blank">Carolina Curious</a>, WFDD listener Vicki Schwartz asks:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>“</strong>Why is there such a lack of bus benches and shelters at various bus stops in the city of Winston-Salem?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Schwartz, it’s personal. </p>
<p>“I grew up in the 50s when bus transportation was a very significant means of transportation,” she says. “I rode the bus with my grandmother and my mother, and it was very convenient. It was very efficient, and something that everybody did."</p>
<figure class="right-image"><img alt="Placeholder" src="/sites/default/files/wsta%20center.jpg" style="height:823px; width:1200px" title="Placeholder" /><figcaption>WSTA's Transportation Center in the heart of downtown Winston-Salem. DAVID FORD/WFDD</figcaption></figure><p><!--class="Mso"-->"My concern is that nowadays it seems that it is the poor mainly using the bus transportation," adds Schwartz. "And to see them standing in the bitter cold, drenching rains, and the high heat that we experience here in the city, just makes me feel — when they don’t have any place to sit down or rest while they’re waiting on the bus — that it is the bus company’s responsibility to think about their ridership.” </p>
<p>If Schwartz’s Carolina Curious query sounds familiar to you, it’s for good reason. We actually tackled <a href="/story/changing-way-we-wait-winston-salems-bus-stops" target="_blank">this very question</a> three years ago.</p>
<p>Back then, just over 5 percent of the city’s roughly 800 bus stops came equipped with shelters. At the time, a comprehensive change of Winston-Salem Transit Authority’s bus route system was underway with the promise of more stops and shelters. </p>
<p><strong>(Still) A Work In Progress</strong></p>
<p>There’s a new leader of the Winston-Salem Transit Authority, or WSTA. In January, Donna Woodson replaced Art Barnes as General Manager. She has 20 years of transportation experience, and she says she is well aware that bus shelters continue to be a hot topic in Winston-Salem. </p>
<p>“We have 1,525 bus stops currently,” says Woodson. “As far as shelters, we have about 84 shelters. And that’s a work in progress because we do have a list of proposed shelters to come up and definitely, we want to increase that number.”</p>
<p>That’s about 5 percent of stops – virtually the same percentage as it was when WFDD first investigated this issue for Carolina Curious. Woodson says she’d love more, but it comes with a hefty price tag. </p>
<p>“Basically, for a large shelter it’s about $6,000 and then for a smaller shelter $5,000,” she says.</p>
<figure class="right-image"><a href="/sites/default/files/d%20and%20m.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Placeholder" src="/sites/default/files/d%20and%20m.jpg" style="height:900px; width:1200px" title="Placeholder" /></a>
<figcaption>WSDOT Special Projects Coordinator Myra Stafford (left) consults with WSTA General manager Donna Woodson on all bus stop and shelter construction projects. DAVID FORD/WFDD</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Construction Challenges</strong></p>
<p>Woodson points out that new bus stops with shelters are in fact already in progress along sections of Patterson Avenue for example. And projects like these take a lot of time and energy, according to <!--class="Mso"-->Special Projects Coordinator Myra Stafford. She’s with the Winston-Salem Department of Transportation. </p>
<p>“First of all, we have to make sure that we have the proper right of way,” says Stafford.</p>
<p>That means dealing with property owners — government, private and commercial — and getting them to allow access to their land. It can be a tough sell, particularly for private owners who complain about the noise, trash, and graffiti that comes along with a bus stop in their area. Stafford says there are construction challenges to overcome as well. </p>
<figure class="left-image"><a href="/sites/default/files/shelter%20solo.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Placeholder" src="/sites/default/files/shelter%20solo.jpg" style="height:998px; width:1200px" title="Placeholder" /></a>
<figcaption>A typical bus shelter like this one runs between $5,000 and $6,000. DAVID FORD/WFDD</figcaption></figure><p><!--class="Mso"-->“There are the characteristics of the layout as far as the slope of the land,” she says. “And sometimes we may need to build a retaining wall or some type of support other than just the concrete pad and shelter<em>.</em>”</p>
<p>So, it turns out that throwing up a few hundred bus shelters is not as easy as one might think. There’s pushback from landowners who don’t want them. They’re pricey to build. Winston-Salem’s bus shelter coverage at 5 percent is within one point of Greensboro’s — the city with highest bus shelter percentage in the Triad — and it fares better than High Point, with only 3 percent of its bus stops accompanied with shelters. </p>
<p><!--class="Mso"-->In fact, regions across the country are all over the map when it comes these numbers. The American Public Transportation Association recently did a random sampling of more than dozen mid-size American cities. That average was roughly 14 percent, or almost three times that of Winston-Salem. </p>
<p><strong>Plans On Hold</strong></p>
<p>So, whatever happened to WSTA’s planned comprehensive bus route changes? The one where they added a bunch of cross-town routes? Wasn’t that supposed to include additional bus shelters too? </p>
<p>Winston-Salem’s Director of Transportation Toneq’ McCullough says it turns out the route changes met stiff resistance from many of the riders who depend on public transportation the most. And after putting years of work into the project, within four months of the new rollout, they had to go back to the drawing board.</p>
<p>“The bus shelter plans that we had for the comprehensive change to the routes were put on hold because we were making changes to the routes and we didn’t want to put shelters at locations that then later were moved,” says McCullough. </p>
<p><strong>Hope For Riders?</strong></p>
<p>The good news for WSTA riders is that 22 more bus shelters are on the way. And a half-million dollars in federal funding will lead to even more, along with upgrades like benches, new concrete landing pads with curb ramps for wheelchairs, and landscaping improvements.</p>
<p>McCullough says the city’s new focus is on streamlining how bus transportation decisions are made moving forward.</p>
<p>“We are in the process of hiring a consultant to help us develop standards that we will continue to use in our system to determine where bus stops should be, so that we’re consistent throughout the network,” says McCullough.</p>
<p>Sounds like a plan, and one that WFDD listeners like Vicki Schwartz will be following closely on Carolina Curious.</p>
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</div> <!-- /.easy_social_box -->Thu, 23 May 2019 12:12:30 +0000
David Ford140142 at https://www.wfdd.org
David FordOn today’s Carolina Curious, WFDD listener Vicki Schwartz asks:
“Why is there such a lack of bus benches and shelters at various bus stops in the city of Winston-Salem?”
For Schwartz, it’s personal.
“I grew up in the 50s when bus transportation was a very significant means of transportation,” she says. “I rode the bus with my grandmother and my mother, and it was very convenient. It was very efficient, and something that everybody did."NoWSTA, WSDOT, Donna Woodson, Myra Stafford, Toniq' McCullough, bus stops, bus shelters4:25Carolina Curious: The Search For Safe, Affordable Housinghttps://www.wfdd.org/story/carolina-curious-search-safe-affordable-housing
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Government housing in Northeast Winston-Salem on Motor Road. DAVID FORD/WFDD </div>
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<p>Over the past few months, WFDD has received several questions from listeners about housing issues. Despite its continued growth, the Triad has some of the highest eviction rates in the country. Between 2014 and July of 2018, roughly one in five Guilford and Forsyth County renters faced the prospect of being removed from their homes.</p>
<p>One reason? Lack of affordable housing. We’ve been asking you for your input, and for this installment of <a href="/show/carolina-curious" target="_blank">Carolina Curious</a>, we’re taking a deeper dive into this important issue affecting thousands of Triad residents each year.</p>
<p>WFDD’s David Ford spoke with Greensboro Housing Coalition Executive Director Brett Byerly.</p>
<p><strong>WFDD listener Joe Johnson asks: "I'm familiar with HAWS [Housing Authority of Winston-Salem]. I know they offer Section 8 and other low-income housing options. What are the qualifications for one seeking that housing? The wait times? And also what are the quality standards for owners of the property?"</strong></p>
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<p>So, public housing authorities like Greensboro Housing Authority or the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem, operate under funding primarily from the Department of Housing and Urban Development—or what we call HUD—and there's basically two types of housing that they operate. There's voucher housing, which is Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers—actually the real name for it, but people still call it Section 8—and it runs a gamut of different types of voucher type housing where a private owner owns that housing, and the Housing Authority pays the rent. They have a housing contract with the landlord, and the tenant pays a portion of the rent, and the Housing Authority pays a portion of the rent. The other type of housing that housing authorities offer is traditional, what we call, public housing, where the Housing Authority owns the unit, and a resident lives there in that unit which has the subsidy. The unit has the subsidy in public housing. The person has the subsidy in voucher-based housing.</p>
<figure class="right-image"><img alt="Placeholder" src="/sites/default/files/Joe%20pic.jpg" style="height:1200px; width:900px" title="Placeholder" /><figcaption>WFDD listener Joe Johnson volunteers with Crisis Control Ministries. "A lot of folks out there are working hard and just can't make rent," says Johnson. "That needs to change." DAVID FORD/WFDD</figcaption></figure></blockquote>
<p><strong>And what are the qualifications to get into that system?</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Each housing authority has an administrative plan which has to be approved by HUD and it kind of spells out their qualifications, and they publish their administrative plan annually. But typically what you're looking at is meeting an income threshold. For public housing it might be that you would have to be below 50 percent of area median income to basically qualify. And then there's some other qualifications that the housing authorities put on as well which may be that you didn't have evictions on your record or certain things in your criminal record would be prohibited to be able to get onto that waiting list. Now the reality is, in this country, about 25 percent of the people that would actually qualify for a voucher or a public housing unit actually get one. So the housing authorities don't have the resources that they need to actually provide three-quarters of the service that they would be able to provide based on these income qualifications. So what happens in Greensboro—I can speak to that specifically—is we end up with a situation where people sign up for a waitlist with the Housing Authority, they open that waitlist every year or two ... and then you wait three to seven years potentially. And then they call you and say, “We have a voucher for you.”</p>
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<p><strong>WFDD listener Sharon LaCombe wants to know: “Why isn't there low-income housing that is safer than Section 8 housing?”</strong></p>
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<p>Well, part of that goes back to the question of does the Housing Authority inspect property? So, the Housing Authority inspects their properties. There's somebody looking. In the private market where inspections may not happen, there's no inspector coming. So, you're going to end up with lower quality because you end up with less inspections. However, having said that, each municipality has its own set of code enforcement standards that they have set for their area. If cities aren't enforcing their minimum housing standards, you're going to end up with lower quality housing in there as well. So, part of it is the Housing Authority and part of it’s the municipality to enforce standards that they have.</p>
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<p><strong>Listener Scottie Bottenus asks: “When will the city contribute to the low-income housing community? More expensive apartments downtown and boarded up government housing next door. Shameful.”</strong></p>
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<p>It's frustrating seeing these boarded-up places, these abandoned and vacant properties. But I would say that municipalities typically do contribute to affordable housing. But the mechanisms that they do it in don't produce an extremely large number of units. The Low Income Housing Tax Credit program is the primary method nationally and locally for affordable housing to be built and developed, and it's a very stringent program from the Housing Finance Agency at the state level. In Greensboro we build 70 to 100 new units a year through this program, and each one of those units we build at a cost of somewhere between $120,000 and $175,000 per door. So, say you're going to build 10 units at $150,000 dollars a unit. You don't get many units. In Greensboro, we passed a bond two years ago. Twenty-five million dollars for affordable housing. Sounds like a lot of money, doesn't it? Divide that by $150,000 dollars and see how many units that gets you if you were to just do it straight up that way.</p>
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<p><strong>By your estimates, how many affordable housing units are actually needed in Greensboro right now?</strong></p>
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<p>The most recent number that came out is we have 26,000 households that are paying more than 30 percent of their income for their housing. So, you've got 26,000 households and you're going to build 100 or 200 units? It's not going to get you very far.</p>
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</div> <!-- /.easy_social_box -->Wed, 24 Apr 2019 12:59:30 +0000
David Ford138269 at https://www.wfdd.org
David FordOver the past few months, WFDD has received several questions from listeners about housing issues. Despite its continued growth, the Triad has some of the highest eviction rates in the country.
One reason? Lack of affordable housing. Noaffordable housing, low income, Brett Byerly, Greensboro Housing Coalition, Carolina Curious5:48Carolina Curious: Why Are Recycling Instructions So Complicated?https://www.wfdd.org/story/carolina-curious-why-are-recycling-instructions-so-complicated
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WFDD listener and Winston-Salem-based recycler Stephanie Bennett. BETHANY CHAFIN/WFDD </div>
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<p>Winston-Salem resident Stephanie Bennett is a WFDD listener and wants to know more about something that most of us do every day. She's serious about recycling but doesn’t understand why it can be so complicated. And when she goes to the city’s website to demystify the process, the instructions are involved.</p>
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<p>"Automatically you’re confused about what can be recycled and what can’t,” she says.</p>
<p>For this edition of <a href="/show/carolina-curious" target="_blank">Carolina Curious</a>, WFDD’s Bethany Chafin and Stephanie Bennett head to a local recycling facility to sort it out.</p>
<h4>Inside the MRF</h4>
<p>In hard hats and steel-toed boots, we watch as a giant conveyor belt moves truckloads of recycling that's been collected around Winston-Salem into a material recovery facility, or MRF.</p>
<p>This is where it’s all sorted, and Stephanie and I are already mesmerized. Richie Huckabee with <a href="https://recycleoftenrecycleright.com/" target="_blank">Waste Management</a>, the company that runs the MRF, tells us that all sorts of things come through here.</p>
<figure class="right-image"><img alt="Placeholder" src="/sites/default/files/sort%20line7.jpg" style="height:800px; width:1200px" title="Placeholder" /><figcaption>Sorters make sure the right items get separated out at the material recovery facility. Image courtesy Waste Management.</figcaption></figure><p>“Bowling balls, batteries,” he says. </p>
<p>We watch a child’s plastic baby pool go by, then a blanket and some pillows. </p>
<p>The wildest thing to come through? A pair of bear paws a taxidermist tried to recycle. </p>
<p>“I have seen the front of a car come into one of these lines before. You'll see all this material, and they're [MRF workers] responsible for gathering this stuff out before it goes into the system and does damage to the system,” Huckabee says. </p>
<p>In order for the MRF to run smoothly, consumers have to do their homework. Site Manager Terry Feeny takes us through the maze of machinery; every piece has a specific function.</p>
<p>There’s the TITECH that uses hundreds of air guns and an optical scanner to shoot and sort plastic items - about 100 to 120 tons a month.</p>
<p>Then there’s the glass breaker. “[There are] heavy, steel gears that are spinning at hundreds of miles an hour. And as the glass hits these gears, it shatters it,” Feeny says. The glass falls down and is sifted through the system. Most items here are sorted based on surface area and weight. </p>
<h4>Market Forces</h4>
<p>Recycling differs from place to place. There’s no one law mandating cities do it a certain way.</p>
<p>In Winston-Salem, for example, you can put all your recycling together curbside into one big, blue bin. It’s called single-stream recycling. But how do you know if what you’re putting in there is truly recyclable?</p>
<p>To answer that, we asked Susan Robinson, Director of Public Affairs for Waste Management.</p>
<p>“Recyclables are feedstock to make new materials. Only when it’s [recycled item] displacing the use of raw resources and making a new product, then that’s recycling,” she says.</p>
<figure class="left-image"><img alt="Placeholder" src="/sites/default/files/Elkridge%203.jpeg" style="height:898px; width:1200px" title="Placeholder" /><figcaption>Inside a material recovery facility or MRF. Image courtesy Waste Management.</figcaption></figure><p>What that means is that recycling is dependent on market forces; there has to be a buyer for the commodity. And the market is changing. China used to buy about 30 percent of U.S. recyclables. Now these products have to be sold stateside.</p>
<p>This is one reason why recycling can get complicated. Another reason is some misinformation involving the numbers on the bottom of plastic items. </p>
<p>“It’s probably one of the greatest areas of confusion and frustration in our industry. That labeling, those numbers, is not an indicator about whether or not a container can be recycled in any particular program,” Robinson says.</p>
<p>The numbers identify what kind of plastic an item is made with, and while this is helpful information, it’s a combination of material and container shape that indicates whether something can be recycled for a specific program.</p>
<h4>Good Intentions </h4>
<p>It turns out that 16 to 20 percent of material collected is not able to be recycled. This is partially due to something Susan Robinson calls "wishcycling." </p>
<p>“Wishcycling is the term that’s coined for material that consumers think should be recycled, or they’re confused, so they just put it in the cart, and they just leave it up to the recyclers to figure it out,” she says. And that’s why industry officials say, “when in doubt, throw it out.”</p>
<figure class="right-image"><img alt="Placeholder" src="/sites/default/files/waste-managment-recycling-1153jpg_34666213043_o.jpg" style="height:800px; width:1200px" title="Placeholder" /><figcaption>The final product ready to be sold to a buyer. Image courtesy Waste Management</figcaption></figure><p>Recycling instructions can be a bit of headache, but Scott Mouw with the non-profit <a href="https://recycleoftenrecycleright.com/" target="_blank">Recycling Partnership</a> says it’s worth it. He thinks people should be applauded for giving it their best shot.</p>
<p>He adds the fact that people care about being confused shows how invested they are. “They want to recycle. They understand the huge economic and environmental benefits from recycling,” he says.</p>
<p>Our listener Stephanie Bennett is one of these people. As we leave the MRF she’s enthusiastic.</p>
<p>“I was actually telling a friend like a year ago, I wish they had tours of recycling places,” she says.</p>
<p>And now that she’s been? She thinks everyone should visit a recycling facility.</p>
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Bethany Chafin135113 at https://www.wfdd.org
Bethany ChafinWinston-Salem resident Stephanie Bennett is a WFDD listener and wants to know more about something that most of us do every day. She's serious about recycling but doesn’t understand why it can be so complicated. And when she goes to the city’s website to demystify the process, the instructions are involved.
"Automatically you’re confused about what can be recycled and what can’t,” she says.Norecycling, Carolina Curious, single stream recycling, Winston-Salem, material recovery facility, MRF, waste management, Recycling Partnership4:31Carolina Curious: Why Not Draw Voting Districts With County Lines?https://www.wfdd.org/story/carolina-curious-why-not-draw-voting-districts-county-lines
<img typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" src="https://wfdd-live.s3.amazonaws.com/styles/story-full/s3/images/story/2016NC_US_House_0.png?itok=cn1mPcXE" width="751" height="295" alt="" /><figcaption class="figure-caption">
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North Carolina&#039;s U.S. House districts. Courtesy: North Carolina General Assembly </div>
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<p>There’s been a lot of talk over the last few years about who should be drawing North Carolina’s legislative districts and how it might be done.</p>
<p>Those questions have been underlined by a host of lawsuits over the fairness of districts, both state and federal.</p>
<p>WFDD listener Steve Patterson asked us why electoral maps can’t be created in a simpler way:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Why can’t voting districts be drawn using established county lines in order to eliminate gerrymandering of the districts?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this edition of <a href="/show/carolina-curious" target="_blank">Carolina Curious</a>, WFDD’s Sean Bueter talks with <a href="http://politics.wfu.edu/faculty-and-staff/john-dinan/" target="_blank">Wake Forest University professor John Dinan</a> to find out more.</p>
<h3>Interview Highlights</h3>
<p>On the practicalities of making sure each district has an equal population:</p>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>As long as you're going to have single member districts – that is, if you have 120 members of the State House, if you have 50 members of the State Senate – if you're going to have one member for each district and you're also going to be required to have each district be an equal population, you're going to have to violate the one county rule.</p>
<p>Because sometimes to have the districts be of an equal population you're going to have to break up districts or sometimes you're going to have to have one county whole, combined with half or part of another county. So given these competing considerations it's just not possible to actually keep all the counties whole, in practice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A few examples to look at:</p>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>In fact, up until the 1960s when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its "one person, one vote" rules, there were districts around the country – some that they'd have ten times as many people in a neighboring district for Congress, or for state legislature – and at that time the U.S. Supreme Court said "that is no longer allowed, that violates the 'one person, one vote' rule."</p>
<p>So one thing I would say is, if you look at the three main maps to look at – one is the map for the congressional districts; two is the map for the State Senate districts; and three is the map for the State House districts – you will see county boundaries respected to a great degree. That is, there are some districts that consist entirely of a single county, or other districts that consist of just two counties.</p>
<p>So it's not that county lines aren't taken into account, it's just that you can't take account of them in all respects. Otherwise, you wouldn't be meeting other criteria that you have to meet.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On what some states have done to try to fend of racial or partisan gerrymandering:</p>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>First of all, what has the U.S. Supreme Court said about this? ... About each decade, a case comes up to the U.S. Supreme Court and people say, "will you declare, U.S. Supreme Court, that this violates the U.S. Constitution?" And the U.S. Supreme Court has actually never issued a decision along those lines in such a way that would give a standard for how federal judges would say, "that's too much of a consideration of race" or "that's an allowable amount."</p>
<p>But states can actually take those matters into their own hands and decide these matters. One example: the states of California, Arizona, and several other states have set up independent commissions. And they say, "perhaps this will reduce partisanship, if we draw these not by the legislature doing the job, but by independent commissions." Or the state of Iowa says, "well let's have, essentially, an agency of state government be responsible for doing this, a little bit distant from the legislature."</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>(Ed.: This transcription has been lightly edited for clarity.)</em></p>
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<a href="/tags/politics">#politics</a> <a href="/tags/government">#government</a> <a href="/tags/redistricting">#redistricting</a> <a href="/tags/voting">#voting</a> <a href="/tags/elections">#elections</a> <a href="/tags/carolina-curious">#carolina curious</a> </div>
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</div> <!-- /.easy_social_box -->Tue, 19 Feb 2019 12:38:56 +0000133715 at https://www.wfdd.orgThere’s been a lot of talk over the last few years about who should be drawing North Carolina’s legislative districts and how it might be done.
Those questions have been underlined by a host of lawsuits over the fairness of districts, both state and federal.
WFDD listener Steve Patterson asked us why electoral maps can’t be created in a simpler way:
Why can’t voting districts be drawn using established county lines in order to eliminate gerrymandering of the districts?NoPolitics, government, redistricting, voting, elections, Carolina Curious4:29Carolina Curious: Why Is So Much Voter Data Publicly Available?https://www.wfdd.org/story/carolina-curious-why-so-much-voter-data-publicly-available
<img typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" src="https://wfdd-live.s3.amazonaws.com/styles/story-full/s3/images/story/I_Voted_Sticker_1.jpg?itok=M_980JKr" width="800" height="541" alt="" /><figcaption class="figure-caption">
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SEAN BUETER/WFDD </div>
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<p>Late last year, the State Board of Elections began an investigation into North Carolina's 9th Congressional District because of potential voting irregularities.</p>
<p>Since then, <a href="http://www.oldnorthstatepolitics.com/2018/12/NCs-9th-competitive-and-contested-CD.html#more" target="_blank">several analyses of publicly-available voter data</a> have reinforced the idea that votes may have been manipulated in some way to benefit one of the candidates.</p>
<p>Listener Carol Keck wanted to know why such data is available in the first place, especially to political parties and candidates.</p>
<p>In this edition of Carolina Curious, WFDD’s Sean Bueter speaks with UNC-Greensboro <a href="https://psc.uncg.edu/people/prysby/">political scientist Charles Prysby</a> to find out more.</p>
<h3>Interview Highlights</h3>
<p>On what voter data the North Carolina Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement keeps on file:</p>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>They have basic demographic information such as your gender, race, and age. They have your address, of course, and also your voting history – not, of course, how you voted, because that's a secret ballot – but whether or not you voted in any particular election, and that would include primaries.</p>
<p>So you could look up, for example, to see if someone voted in the 2008 elections. You could see whether a person voted in the primaries that year, and if so, which primary they voted in – the Democratic or Republican primary – information like that. This is pretty much standard across states. Every state has its own laws, but it's pretty much the same thing across the states.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On why they keep that data:</p>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>They need the information because people have to register to vote in the state. Almost every state has voter registration and you can't vote in the election unless you're a registered voter. And so you have to have that information to make sure that the people who are voting are people who are eligible to vote.</p>
<p>The reason it's public information is to allow political parties and candidates and other interested organizations to be able to contact voters more effectively.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On how making voting data available helped catch potential improprieties in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, which is still undecided:</p>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Well, first let me start by saying that that's another reason for making this information publicly available. I already said there was one reason – that candidates, political parties, and other organizations could more effectively contact voters. But the other reason is to make that information available to all groups, including the media for example, who might want to investigate possible voting irregularities of any sort.</p>
<p>And I think in the case of Bladen County you can see the value of that. So by looking at the number of absentee ballots that were requested and the number that were actually submitted and comparing that to other counties you can see that Bladen County stood out as having been quite a deviant case.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>(Ed.: This transcription has been lightly edited for clarity.)</em></p>
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<a href="/tags/politics">#politics</a> <a href="/tags/government">#government</a> <a href="/tags/voting">#voting</a> <a href="/tags/elections">#elections</a> <a href="/tags/election-2018">#election 2018</a> <a href="/tags/9th-district">#9th district</a> <a href="/tags/charles-prysby">#charles prysby</a> <a href="/tags/carolina-curious">#carolina curious</a> </div>
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</div> <!-- /.easy_social_box -->Wed, 30 Jan 2019 12:38:56 +0000132292 at https://www.wfdd.orgLate last year, the State Board of Elections began an investigation into North Carolina's 9th Congressional District because of potential voting irregularities.
Since then, several analyses of publicly-available voter data have reinforced the idea that votes may have been manipulated in some way to benefit one of the candidates.NoPolitics, government, voting, elections, Election 2018, 9th District, Charles Prysby, Carolina Curious4:19Carolina Curious: How Does NCDOT Prioritize Clearing Snowy Roads?https://www.wfdd.org/story/carolina-curious-how-does-ncdot-prioritize-clearing-snowy-roads
<img typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" src="https://wfdd-live.s3.amazonaws.com/styles/story-full/s3/images/story/IMG_4927.JPG?itok=JZaOSJoq" width="800" height="555" alt="" /><figcaption class="figure-caption">
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Road salt and other equipment sits ready at the NCDOT Division 9 Maintenance Yard. SEAN BUETER/WFDD </div>
</figcaption>
<div class="field-body">
<p>As the Triad prepares for potentially heavy snow this weekend, people at the North Carolina Department of Transportation are getting ready too.</p>
<p>Listener Whitney Kuebert wanted to know how exactly they do that, among other things.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Who makes the decision – when bad weather is coming – which roads get treated?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We went searching for answers from the people at NCDOT Division 9.</p>
<p>At the division's maintenance yard at noon Friday, there were a few trucks and loaders here and there, and a crew preparing salt brine for the roads. But mostly, it was quiet.</p>
<p>Though, to be fair, it’s the quiet before the snowstorm.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean road crews all over the state aren’t getting ready, though. According to Division 9 Maintenance Engineer John Rhyne, it’s quite the opposite.</p>
<p>“The five counties that we manage are all in the mode of preparing,” he says. “We’re checking out equipment, adjusting our staffing, and watching the forecast like everyone else is, with baited breath.”</p>
<p>According to Rhyne, between roughly Thanksgiving and early spring, NCDOT officials pay special attention to weather forecasts. And they listen in on National Weather Service briefings and keep up with the latest weather news. When a major weather event pops up, the wheels start turning, no matter how bad the predictions look.</p>
<p>“We treat every storm very similarly. We kind of gather all the forces whether it’s going to be a half inch or 12 inches," he explains. “So from our standpoint, we have to succeed in keeping the roads passable.”</p>
<p>But once the snow starts falling and crews are in position, how do they decide which roads to tackle first?</p>
<p>That’s one of the most common questions Rhyne gets from the public. And the answer is this: it’s largely spelled out already. Across the state, the department prioritizes the most important roadways with what’s called the “bare pavement system.”</p>
<p>“Those are the major roads that carry the largest amount of traffic, the ones that get you across the county and across the state,” he says. “They consist of the interstates and the primary roads, the numbered routes.”</p>
<p>From a traffic management perspective, it makes sense. If commercial trucks and other vehicles on a road like Interstate 40 can’t move safely, then things like emergency services and even businesses could grind to a halt.</p>
<p>That’s why, before a weather event starts, crews get out there to spread salt brine on the roads – basically a 23% salt-in-water mixture – to keep snow and ice from sticking.</p>
<p>Now, you’re probably thinking “that’s great and all, but when will they get to my neighborhood?”</p>
<p>Well, unless you hire a private service to do it, it mostly depends on how close you live to a major thoroughfare in your town.</p>
<p>“We begin there with the major secondary roads, the Shattalons, the Lewisville-Clemmons, the Shallowford Roads,” he says, referencing some of the main streets in Forsyth County. “And then we move into the subdivisions, the dead-end roads, the gravel roads.”</p>
<p>Think of it this way: NCDOT only has so much snow removal equipment to go around. So they deploy those resources in a way that benefits the most people first, and then work their way down.</p>
<p>To stay efficient, each division has a series of complex maps they develop over the summer that tells each plow and salt truck driver exactly where to go.</p>
<p>“One of the [comments] we get a lot is: ‘I saw a truck going down the road with the blade up.’ You may very well have, and there’s a purpose in that,” Rhyne says. “That truck is going somewhere else to begin their section. Their section just does not include the route you witnessed them driving by.”</p>
<p>To put a finer point on it: each division has pretty meticulous plans about how they tackle a snowstorm. It’s not random.</p>
<p>But let’s change gears here for a second: our listener, Whitney Kuebert, was also curious how bad all that salt and brine might be for her car. Good question! Here’s what John Rhyne had to say.</p>
<p>“As I do with my personal car, I’d take your car to the car wash, just for precautionary sake:. But the amount of salt per mile that we apply in the salt brine is much less than the amount of salt we apply during a snow event,” he explains.</p>
<p>The bottom line when we get a bunch of snow is this: there are a lot of people working really hard on this, and it’s a huge job.</p>
<p>“We’re tasked with managing 11,000 lane miles. Sometimes we’ll hear the comment, ‘well, you never got to my road, it melted.’ That may be the case if it’s a subdivision or a dead-end road and it’s lower down on the priority list, and we only got one or two inches and the sun comes out the next day like it often does in North Carolina,” he says.</p>
<p>“In our process of managing that 11,000 miles, we may make ten trips on the interstate because it snowed for hours upon hours.”</p>
<p>So, even though it can be frustrating after a storm to know that your neighborhood hasn’t been cleared yet, be patient. And fear not.</p>
<p>The folks at NCDOT have a plan, and they’re trying to keep everyone safe.</p>
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<a href="/tags/weather">#weather</a> <a href="/tags/carolina-curious">#carolina curious</a> <a href="/tags/ncdot">#ncdot</a> <a href="/tags/snow">#snow</a> <a href="/tags/winter">#winter</a> <a href="/tags/transportation">#transportation</a> </div>
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</div> <!-- /.easy_social_box -->Fri, 07 Dec 2018 21:45:48 +0000128696 at https://www.wfdd.orgAs the Triad prepares for potentially heavy snow this weekend, people at the North Carolina Department of Transportation are getting ready too.
Listener Whitney Kuebert wanted to know how exactly they do that, among other things.
“Who makes the decision – when bad weather is coming – which roads get treated?”
We went searching for answers from the people at NCDOT Division 9.NoWeather, Carolina Curious, ncdot, snow, winter, Transportation5:09Carolina Curious: Felix Walker Talks To Buncombe (And Sparks A New Word)https://www.wfdd.org/story/carolina-curious-felix-walker-talks-buncombe-and-sparks-new-word
<img typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" src="https://wfdd-live.s3.amazonaws.com/styles/story-full/s3/images/story/P-26b.JPG?itok=4wSPKxiH" width="800" height="542" alt="" /><figcaption class="figure-caption">
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The state historical marker honoring U.S. Rep. Felix Walker. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. </div>
</figcaption>
<div class="field-body">
<p>Earlier this year, we aired a <em>Carolina Curious</em> edition about the origins of the word “Cackalacky.”</p>
<p>We heard some great feedback about the story. But listener Paul Endry caught us using another word in the piece that has deep ties to North Carolina. Here’s the passage <a href="/story/carolina-curious-who-put-cackalacky-north-carolina">from the original story</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><!--class="Mso"-->[Paul] Jones says he's heard it all. Some have claimed Cackalacky is a derivative of a Cherokee word. Others suggest it's an Americanization of the German word for cockroach – "Kakerlake." But Jones thinks these theories are bunk.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That last word, "bunk" – which is old slang for "nonsense" – isn't particularly common these days. But it turns out it has uniquely North Carolinian roots.</p>
<p>To help us get to the bottom the term, we called up <a href="https://catawba.edu/academics/programs/undergraduate/politics/faculty/dr-gary-freeze/" target="_blank">Catawba College Professor of History and American Cultural Studies Gary Freeze</a>. He says the origins of “bunk” can be found in the speeches of U.S. Rep. Felix Walker, right around the time of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Compromise" target="_blank">Missouri Compromise Debates of 1820</a>.</p>
<p>“The very day they seemed to have agreed on the Compromise, and everyone was ready to vote, Walker stood up and said he wanted to make a speech," Freeze explains. "And what Walker said to them is that they didn’t need to worry about what he was going to say. He was going to ‘talk to Buncombe.’”</p>
<p>The reference, of course, is to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncombe_County,_North_Carolina" target="_blank">Buncombe County, North Carolina</a>, home to Asheville. Felix Walker was the congressman representing the area, and he knew he needed to get on the Congressional Record if he wanted to get reelected.</p>
<p>But his peers were ready to go home, and they weren’t too happy about this.</p>
<p>"Apparently, they drowned him out with 'Question! Question!’ and basically voted on the Missiouri Compromise," Freeze says. "It’s unclear if he ever made the speech. But very quickly, the word ‘Buncombe’ became a reference to worthless talking in congress.”&gt;</p>
<p>This story continued to spread throughout the 19th century, at some point being simplified to "bunkum." And according to Freeze, as the word became more popular, the geography became more ephemeral.</p>
<p>“The references always seem to be that it was an object of a preposition, that you were talking 'for Buncombe,' or you were talking 'to Buncombe.' It was a destination. And the destination was kind of mythical. And it went beyond the boundaries of North Carolina.”</p>
<p>As these things go, the word evolved and got remixed. Eventually “bunkum” became “bunk.”</p>
<p>If you wanted to set the record straight, you could “debunk” something.</p>
<p>Or, if you needed another word for nonsense, you’d combine the words “bunkum” and “hocus-pocus” to get the term “hokum.”</p>
<p>But here’s the thing: according to Freeze, there’s another, more local usage of “Buncombe” that shocked even him.</p>
<p>"Right before the American Civil War, there was a second definition of 'Buncombe' that North Carolinians used," he says. "It referenced the size of Buncombe County as a way to describe how something was big, like a tomato or a potato.”</p>
<p>So, for example, if you manufactured a widget that was “the best thing this side of Buncombe,” you were saying your widget was the best around, at least until you got to Buncombe County.</p>
<p>And then Freeze found this reference with Triad ties.</p>
<p>“There was an argument in Greensboro in 1843 about whether something in their congressional district 'belonging to Buncombe,' he says. "Not just a concept. In other words, I think Buncombe had dual meanings in North Carolina as being a place that was kind of mythical and strange at the same time that it was referencing the hot air idea.”</p>
<p>Even though the word “bunk” isn’t used much anymore, the fact that a little-known congressman from North Carolina could shape the language of the day, well, you might say that’s the neatest thing this side of Buncombe.</p>
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<a href="/tags/carolina-curious">#carolina curious</a> <a href="/tags/congress">#congress</a> <a href="/tags/buncombe-county">#buncombe county</a> <a href="/tags/asheville">#asheville</a> <a href="/tags/language">#language</a> <a href="/tags/felix-walker">#felix walker</a> <a href="/tags/bunk">#bunk</a> <a href="/tags/cackalacky">#cackalacky</a> </div>
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</div> <!-- /.easy_social_box -->Tue, 27 Nov 2018 12:38:56 +0000
Sean Bueter
127831 at https://www.wfdd.org
Sean Bueter
Earlier this year, we aired a Carolina Curious edition about the origins of the word “Cackalacky.”
We heard some great feedback about the story. But listener Paul Endry caught us using another word in the piece that has deep ties to North Carolina. Here’s the passage from the original story:NoCarolina Curious, Congress, Buncombe County, Asheville, Language, Felix Walker, bunk, Cackalacky4:23Carolina Curious: Do TV And Radio Stations Have To Run Political Advertisements?https://www.wfdd.org/story/carolina-curious-do-tv-and-radio-stations-have-run-political-advertisements
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Greg Orman, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, watches a television campaign ad as the talks about launching his statewide television and radio ad campaign during a news conference at his campaign headquarters Thursday, July 10, 2014, in Shawnee, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) </div>
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<p>Chances are, sometime in recent days, you’ve seen or heard a political ad. They’re everywhere right now, and they come in different packages - attack ads, the character ad, maybe an ad focused on endorsements.</p>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<p>It’s a lot to take in, and this election season, WFDD listener James Sims wanted to know if radio and television stations have any ability to refuse to run political ads, or if they’re obligated, even if the content is false.</p>
<p>To find the answer, WFDD's Bethany Chafin spoke with Associate Professor of Law Enrique Armijo at Elon University School of Law. </p>
<p><em>Editor's Note: The political ads we’re talking about here would not be heard on public television or radio stations like WFDD. That’s because, under the Communications Act, public stations aren’t allowed to run most political spots. So, for the purposes of this conversation, we’re talking about commercial broadcasters. </em><em>This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.</em></p>
<h3>Interview Highlights</h3>
<h4>On broadcast laws when it comes to political ads:</h4>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Local television stations and radio stations basically have the obligation to treat all candidates the same. What that means is, basically if a candidate, either state or federal, wants to buy an ad on a local television station, the local television station sells the candidate the ad. And in addition, with respect to the falsity of the ad, broadcast stations, once they buy an ad from a candidate, they are basically immune from suit for anything in that ad that might be false or defamatory. Of course, candidates are free to sue each other for falsities in their ads but the station itself can't be sued for anything that a candidate says about another candidate in an ad.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4>On whether various types of political ads are regulated differently:</h4>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>As I said, stations cannot censor candidate ads except with requiring some required sponsorship identification information. However, with respect to third-party ads, ads run by entities other than a candidate supporting the defeat of another candidate, there can be potential defamation liability for those third-party ads on behalf of the station as well as on the behalf of the person or entity placing the ad, so television stations do have to be careful about not running things that are clearly false.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4>On whether there are noteworthy case studies in terms of political ads:</h4>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>It's very common actually for a candidate to complain to a station that an ad run by a third party or even another candidate is defamatory and to demand that that station stop running that ad. And what stations do in this circumstance is request documentation from the third-party advertiser. As I said earlier, the station cannot decline to run or to change a candidate ad that talks about another candidate but with respect to third-party ads, what stations do is generally ask for the documentation, review that documentation usually with the assistance of legal counsel, and it's a very rare case that a television station will take down a third-party advertisement, even one that is very maybe on the edge of telling the truth or not.</p>
<p>And the reason for that is because basically the law of defamation says that ... in order to successfully sue for defamation, someone running for office has to show that the statements in the ad are being made knowing that they're false or basically disregarding as to whether or not they're true. And that's just a very difficult showing for a candidate to make. And then there are good reasons for that, because the Supreme Court talked about the fact in the case of <em>New York Times vs. Sullivan</em> that we have to be able to be free to speak and even sometimes get things wrong about people who are running for office in order for the democracy to function. And that's really what the First Amendment is for.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4>On obscenity or graphic information in political ads:</h4>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<blockquote>
<p>The FCC is very clear on this. The candidate ads cannot be censored even if the radio station or television station would expose itself to FCC liability, you know, an ad that for example contained indecent language or contained some imagery that was obscene. The FCC has said that stations are immune for running those ads. But in exchange for that immunity, you can't make any changes to the ads or reject them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
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<a href="/tags/carolina-curious">#carolina curious</a> <a href="/tags/political-ads">#political ads</a> <a href="/tags/commercial-radio">#commercial radio</a> <a href="/tags/commercial-television">#commercial television</a> <a href="/tags/election-2018">#election 2018</a> </div>
<a href="/politics-government" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Politics &amp; Government</a>
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</div> <!-- /.easy_social_box -->Wed, 31 Oct 2018 15:42:46 +0000
Bethany Chafin126062 at https://www.wfdd.org
Bethany ChafinChances are, sometime in recent days, you’ve seen or heard a political ad. They’re everywhere right now, and they come in different packages - attack ads, the character ad, maybe an ad focused on endorsements.
It’s a lot to take in, and this election season, WFDD listener James Sims wanted to know if radio and television stations have any ability to refuse to run political ads, or if they’re obligated, even if the content is false.NoCarolina Curious, political ads, commercial radio, commercial television, Election 20184:33Carolina Curious: Why Are Weather Alerts Sometimes Hard To Understand?https://www.wfdd.org/story/carolina-curious-why-are-weather-alerts-sometimes-hard-understand
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The antenna tower outside of WFDD studios. EDDIE GARCIA/WFDD </div>
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<p><!--class="Mso"-->One of the services that radio stations like WFDD provide is broadcasting alerts from the <a href="https://www.weather.gov/" target="_blank">National Weather Service</a>. These emergency alerts let listeners know about weather concerns, helping folks stay safe. With Hurricane Florence being on track to hit the East Coast this week, and a state of emergency in place in North Carolina, these types of messages are important.</p>
<p>And many times, those announcements are clear. But sometimes, those messages are clear as mud. You may have heard one that was a little noisy, or distorted, and felt frustrated that you couldn’t decipher it.</p>
<p>Listener Howard Covington shares your concern.</p>
<p>He asks, “Why in an era of broadcasting advances can't the weather service produce an alert that can be easily understood?”</p>
<p>Covington feels that with modern technology, we should hear crisp audio.</p>
<p><!--class="Mso"--></p>
<p>“Here you have a government agency whose mission is to alert people of imminent dangers, and the one thing they're supposed to do isn’t being done very well, because the message is garbled,” says Covington.</p>
<p>So what kind of technology is used for sending weather alerts?</p>
<p>George Newman, the chief operator and operations manager at WFDD, spends much of his time troubleshooting the equipment at the station. That includes making sure our Emergency Alert Services, or EAS machine, is functioning properly.</p>
<figure class="right-image"><a href="/sites/default/files/0912181141b.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Placeholder" src="/sites/default/files/0912181141b.jpg" style="height:675px; width:1200px" title="Placeholder" /></a>
<figcaption><!--class="Mso"-->The Sage Digital ENDEC is used to receive and send all types of alerts, including those from the National Weather Service. EDDIE GARCIA/WFDD</figcaption></figure><p>Ours is a blue box called a Sage Digital ENDEC. Newman says it’s an encoder and decoder that brings in all the systems WFDD is required to monitor.</p>
<p>“You can hear it's clear, but there’s some static in the background,” says Newman. “National Weather Service alerts are consistent because they’re coming from the same place.”</p>
<p>So how are these alerts made?</p>
<p>The alerts are composed on a custom workstation called WarnGen. And though there have been updates, it has been in use since the late 1990s.</p>
<p>Nick Petro works for the National Weather Service in Raleigh. He’s their warning coordination meteorologist. That means he’s a liaison between the teams that get weather info out to the public.</p>
<p>“So what happens then is once the alert is created it goes across our internal network,” Petro says. “It creates the audio, and it uses a voice synthesizer to create the actual warning. And then it gets pushed out through our software that manages the NOAA weather radio broadcast.”</p>
<p>A voice synthesizer – so what we’re hearing is a synthetic interpretation of a human voice. What could affect the sound quality of this weatherperson simulation? Petro says there are a number of variables.</p>
<p>“That audio signal is sent over telephone lines,” he says. “There’s one point of entry for maybe signal degradation or static to enter the stream.”</p>
<p>Were talking landlines here. Yes, the kind that once upon a time we relied on for a phone call. That telephone line leads to a transmitter that sends the message into the air.</p>
<p>Petro says that’s “another entry point for static or signal degradation to get in the system."</p>
<p>"A lot of times the weather or atmospheric conditions can affect the way radio waves propagate and alter or introduce static into an audio stream.”</p>
<p>So if this system of sending and receiving is so potentially noisy, why is it still being done this way? Are any changes in the works?</p>
<p>“That, I would say, would probably take some effort,” Petro says. “And I don’t know what it would take. I don’t know what the cost involved would be. I don’t know if there are any efforts to do any upgrades. But certainly, the system that we have in place now is the system that we have. If there is a solution to make it better out there, I’m not really sure what that is, or how, or when any such improvements could be deployed.”</p>
<p>That’s one of the reasons Petro urges you to look into backup methods, like a NOAA weather radio, or apps, such as <a href="https://readync.org/EN/DOWNLOADAPP.html" target="_blank">Ready NC</a>, Weather Underground, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noaa-weather-radar-live/id749133753?mt=8" target="_blank">NOAA Weather Radar</a>, or Hurricane Tracker. And with a major storm on the way, a battery-powered portable radio can be very helpful for getting up to the minute alerts. For more ideas on being prepared for disasters, check out <a href="https://www.ready.gov/" target="_blank">Ready.gov</a>. And stay safe out there.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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<a href="/tags/weather">#weather</a> <a href="/tags/hurricane">#hurricane</a> <a href="/tags/alert">#alert</a> <a href="/tags/eas">#eas</a> <a href="/tags/emergency">#emergency</a> <a href="/tags/radio">#radio</a> </div>
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</div> <!-- /.easy_social_box -->Wed, 12 Sep 2018 11:00:00 +0000
Eddie Garcia122458 at https://www.wfdd.org
Eddie GarciaOne of the services that radio stations like WFDD provide is broadcasting alerts from the National Weather Service. These emergency alerts let listeners know about weather concerns, helping folks stay safe. With Hurricane Florence being on track to hit the East Coast this week, and a state of emergency in place in North Carolina, these types of messages are important.NoWeather, hurricane, alert, EAS, emergency, radio4:59Carolina Curious: What Is The North Carolina Industrial Hemp Program?https://www.wfdd.org/story/carolina-curious-what-north-carolina-industrial-hemp-program
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Inspecting an industrial hemp field in Bertie County, N.C. Photo courtesy Roger Winstead, North Carolina State University </div>
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<p>Industrial hemp has fallen in and out of favor since George Washington first cultivated the fiber on his Mt. Vernon farm, using it to make items such as rope and canvas sails.</p>
<p>As a member of the cannabis family, hemp is often associated with its THC-infused cousin, marijuana.</p>
<p>And admit it, in the back of your mind, you’ve wondered what would happen if you tried to smoke that hemp-based oven mitt you bought at a farmer’s market in Vermont.</p>
<p>But in fact, industrial hemp does have practical economic benefits, which is why the federal government is promoting test programs for individual states.</p>
<p>That prompted these questions from listener Ryan Gillespie of Winston-Salem:</p>
<p>“I’d like to know, 'what is the North Carolina Industrial Hemp Pilot Program?' I’d also like to know, 'how is it legal?'"</p>
<p>For this edition of <a href="/show/carolina-curious" target="_blank">Carolina Curious</a>, WFDD's Neal Charnoff spoke with Emily Febles, manager of the <a href="http://www.ncagr.gov/hemp/" target="_blank">North Carolina Industrial Hemp Pilot Program</a>. </p>
<h3>Interview Highlights</h3>
<p><strong>On the difference between hemp and marijuana: </strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Industrial hemp and marijuana are both species of the cannabis plant, but they've been bred for different purposes over thousands of years. So obviously marijuana has been bred for its narcotic component. Industrial hemp has been bred for its industrial purposes, mainly over time for its fiber and its large edible seeds, and the other thing its been bred for is its very, very low THC content. </p>
<figure class="right-image"><img alt="Placeholder" src="/sites/default/files/29578425028_e5bcd3eeb3_z.jpg" style="height:640px; width:427px" title="Placeholder" /><figcaption>Photo courtesy Roger Winstead, NCSU</figcaption></figure></blockquote>
<h4>On the practical applications for industrial hemp:</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>Car companies are using hemp fibers to help meet their green initiatives. You could go to Costco right now and buy a big bag of industrial hemp seed to eat...you eat them just like sunflower seeds. And then we have all the traditional uses of hemp fiber: shirts, the military has used it for eons for rope, for sail cloth, and that kind of thing. And then the other thing that is really popular that people are using industrial hemp for is the medicinal side. So you might have heard it called CBD. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>On the legal status of industrial hemp: </strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Industrial hemp is actually federally legal when it's grown under the state licensing programs that are in compliance with the 2014 Farm Bill. That does open up our farmers to some federal programs...one of the big ones is USDA Organic certification, so you can actually get your industrial hemp certified as organic. </p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="/tags/north-carolina-industrial-hemp-pilot-program">#north carolina industrial hemp pilot program</a> <a href="/tags/industrial-hemp">#industrial hemp</a> <a href="/tags/carolina-curious">#carolina curious</a> </div>
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</div> <!-- /.easy_social_box -->Fri, 31 Aug 2018 11:00:00 +0000
Neal Charnoff121601 at https://www.wfdd.org
Neal CharnoffIndustrial hemp has fallen in and out of favor since George Washington first cultivated the fiber on his Mt. Vernon farm, using it to make items such as rope and canvas sails.
As a member of the cannabis family, hemp is often associated with its THC-infused cousin, marijuana.
And admit it, in the back of your mind, you’ve wondered what would happen if you tried to smoke that hemp-based oven mitt you bought at a farmer’s market in Vermont.NoNorth Carolina Industrial Hemp Pilot Program, Industrial hemp, Carolina Curious4:37